Finding Warmth
by Lilly Winters
Summary: Without Gir, Zim finds that his worst enemy is his own mind. Where is Gir and why is Zim wandering the streets in the middle of a storm, even when he is near the brink of death? Zim and Gir Friendship. One-shot?


**A/N**

**I have not written in a long while. And to be honest, I have no idea what to say here for the author's note, so Enjoy and Review.**

**I do not own Invader Zim, etc.**

It is so cold.

The once delicate flakes floating down to touch the earth are now shredding knives slicing through the air, cutting through my skin. The lucid sting of the blistering air, the hoarse breath crackling in my lungs-is that sound of crying coming from me?- and the damp layer settling over my eyes, all of it is overwhelming.

_Find warmth_, my mind tells me.

"Where?" I argue.

_Anywhere! If you don't get out of this storm soon, you're going to…_

My thoughts are interrupted as a crunch echoes from beneath my boot. Pulling back, I see it is a flower that has fallen ill to the bitterness. Layers of petals trickle to the sidewalk, loud and bright against the grey asphalt, but slowly, the snow drenches the color until it, too, becomes part of the bleak scenery enveloping me.

"…Die," I say, squinting hard.

I've got to keep moving. It's the only thing keeping me alive. Any minute, I'm going to drop, dead, whereas I will blend with the land, color gone, the snow covering my stiff corpse, no one able to see me. What a way to go out. How long will they search? Will they search? It's not like anyone really knows I am here. It isn't very unlikely that I would pack up and skip town for a while, just to gather my thoughts. The most to suspect anything would be Dib, but he isn't much of a threat right now.

I gasp, recoiling as a car drives by and sends a wave of half-melted, half-frozen water over me. I scream, angry. Chucking a ball of ice their way, I stumble, only to fall off into the road, right into a puddle. Even more soaked than before, it still could get worse.

_Go home_, my mind speaks again.

"There's nothing left for me at home," I hiss.

_Yes, life. Do you want to live? If you stay out here much longer, you will die, Zim._

"So be it."

_You don't mean it. There's got to be more than this. There has to be. He wouldn't have wanted to see you like this. _

"I didn't want to see him that way!" I cried. "He was all I had left. And now that he's dead, what am I supposed to do? I can't go back. I can't live alone. Not for the rest of my life."

_Can't go back, or won't? There's nothing left for you to do for him now. It's too late. Gir is gone. He is dead. Nothing left for you to do for him._

"No," I whisper. "That's where you're wrong. There is something left for me to do."

A phantom, a ghost, I faze through the blinding blankets of snow flying my way, manage to stumble back into the base, and push the door open. Severed parts and sparking limbs rest on the floor where I left them. If you look closely, you can still see one of his eyes peering out beneath the pile of scrap, that look of fear still shining brightly.

The elevator ride down to the lab is torment. The buttons wobble and shake as I try to focus enough to stand. My mind is fading. At least it won't argue anymore. The tools needed are already gathered on a table. Funny, I don't remember collecting them. I guess a part of me knew it would come to this.

By the time I return to his body, I, myself, am on the floor, crawling over to his side. Too weak. Can't see. I've got to do this.

Eyelids closing, SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, my PAK screeches. One by one, the pieces go back together. The hands to the arms, the head to shoulders, the smile to his face, and soon enough, even passed the hole stamped through his core, I can make out the image of my little Gir.

He lays, stretched across my lap, pale eyes facing the ceiling. I hum to him lightly, and take off my PAK. My head begins to feel heavy. I laugh, I cry, until I, too, am on the ground next to him, eyes staring up at the ceiling.

The squirming cords of the PAK try to reconnect to my back, but I block its way and rest on the floor, sighing when time passes and finally claims it.

_Get it back on_, my mind pleads, breathless. _Please, Zim, before it's too late._

"It is too late." I glance at Gir, caressing his face. "I was too late."

I get no reply from neither Gir nor my mind, because both are now gone. Nothing, no one is left. Grasping his hand in mine, I whisper to my dead mind before blacking out, "I told you there was something I could do for him."

**A/N**

**Confused? In short, something happened to Gir where he died. You can fill in the "how" with whatever you want. Either The Tallest did it, or Dib, etc. Afterwards, Zim is wandering the streets in the middle of a snow storm and argues with himself, his mind, because part of him knows it is wrong to simply walk out in the cold until he dies, but the other half wants nothing to do with life now that Gir is gone. He returns to the base where Gir has been torn apart, left on the floor. Retrieving tools from the lab, he puts him back together before taking his PAK off and dying with him. His mind asks him one more time to put his PAK on so that he may live, but he says it is too late and dies to be with Gir.**

**Depressing, I know. Hopefully you liked it.**


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